[USHMM #93852/Irvin Ungar through the Arthur Szyk Society;Original materials: Graphite and ink on paper;Original dimensions: 7" x 5 1/2"]Berlin Sportpalast: To the Shelter,1942OnJanuary 30, 1939, in a speech commemorating the sixth anniversary of his appointment as chancellor, Adolf Hitler threatened Europe’s Jews with destruction in the event of war. Two days later, the Nazi newspaper Voelkischer Beobachter printed the entire speech under a bold banner announcing, “Prophetic Warning to Jewry.” During the war and the height of Nazi mass murder, Hitler repeatedly alluded to this 1939 “prophecy.”

This drawing, which appeared in the New York Post on October 2, 1942, refers to a speech Hitler had given just days before at Berlin’s Sportpalast in which he repeated his threats to destroy Europe’s Jews in the event of war. Under the foot of the ranting and raving Nazi dictator is a bullet-marked skull marked Jude (Jew), symbolizing the mass murder of the Jews.

[Historical film footage:Hitler speaks before the Reichstag (German Parliament)